This is Kennady Longhurst, 22, and her husband is Alex Salsberry, 25, from Utah with their dog Sullivan ("Sully" for short).

Kennady Longhurst

Last Thursday, Longhurst said she came home for lunch and heard Sully making "this weird combination of coughing, choking, clearing his throat sound." She was alarmed and called her husband, who returned home from work immediately.

He was "wagging his tail and running around acting like himself, besides this weird cough," she said.

Nevertheless, Salsberry took the afternoon off work to stay home with Sully for the rest of the day. The couple said though Sully he would occasionally cough, he was behaving normally.

The cough appeared to have stopped that night. But the following morning, as Salsberry got ready for work, Sully started to cough again.

Salsberry worked from home, and the couple ultimately decided it'd be best to take Sully to the vet to get the cough checked out.

Longhurst said the vet named a series of possible causes, including "kennel cough," which can develop after dogs socialize with other dogs. But test results suggested that Sully was normal and healthy.

Kennady Longhurst

"They gave us some antibiotics just in case it was a bacterial infection, but he didn’t have a fever or any symptoms," Longhurst said. "So the doctor was confused."

The couple continued to keep a close watch on Sully for the rest of the week, but didn't observe any strange noises or coughs after the vet visit.

After checking in with the doctor again, Longhurst said, "He told us sometimes animals fake sick or limp for attention or treats or special privileges."

Kennady Longhurst

"We’re pretty sure he knows that we know he was faking it. So he is just a naughty faker who wanted some extra attention, and boy did he get it," she said. "We baby him so much he probably learned that if he acted weird or different someone would spend the day with him."

Colin Allen, a professor of cognitive science at the University of Pittsburgh, told BuzzFeed News that based on his knowledge of animal cognitive behavior, he suspects Sully was not deceiving his owners, but drawing upon past learned behaviors.

"I’d be less willing to agree that it’s a deliberate deception such that the dog realizes that by coughing the owners will assume it’s sick," Allen said. "I’m going for the explanation that it’s learned behavior."

Longhurst tweeted about the incident and said other dog owners have reached out with similar stories about their dogs.